Magic: The Gathering (repost)

[Unicron]

I threw together a new deck the other night, but as of this writing I haven't yet had the chance to playtest the mechanics. It's a fairly advanced deck, and the first one in which I've used the new planeswalkers cards. They're essentially like having an allied player cast sorceries for you during your turn, and they enter play with a certain number of loyalty counters. Using their abilities alters the level of counters, and only one ability may be used per turn. Planeswalkers are not creatures and cannot be affected by effects which target creatures, but they can be targeted by effects that target permanents, that specify a target opponent, and by a player during his attack phase. If a planewalker is attacked and its controller chooses not to defend it, it loses counters equal to the damage. if it reaches 0 counters, it is removed from play.

This deck is a mixture of blue control/manipulation and black necromancy. My most ideal combo is to be able to play Life's Finale and then sacrifice Grimoire of the Dead to bring back all creatures as my zombie army. There are some other interesting mechanics, aimed chiefly at giving me more cards and life gain via Venser's Journal and forcing my opponents to discard their hands and lose life if they try to do much. The more they have to discard, the more I can potentially resurrect with the Grimoire and the less cards they'll have to execute their own strategy. The Journal can also form a very powerful combo with Psychosis Crawler and Sturmgeist in an ideal situation. And if I can't make use of the Grimoire, Lilliana has a very similar option available and I can either bleed their life away or force them to discard down to nothing potentially. Wall of Frost and Belltower Sphinx also make ideal defenders for trading blows while I get my other spirits into position.

The transmute ability allows you to search for a different card with the same mana cost, and can be played as a sorcery. Changelings count as every creature type at all times, and can therefore count for abilities related to zombies and spirits.


Blue/Black deck "Watery Grave"
Deck size: 65

Lands: 20

5 Islands (u)
5 Swamps (b)
1 Dimir Aqueduct (enters play tapped, and you return a land you control to your hand; -> to produce 1 black and 1 blue mana)
3 Salt Marsh (enters play tapped; -> to produce a black or blue mana)
2 Shimmering Grotto (->: add 1c to your mana pool. 1c + ->: add a mana of any color)
3 Tainted Isle (->: add 1c to mana pool. If you control a swamp, you can add a black or blue mana as well)
1 Unstable Frontier (->: add 1c to mana pool. ->: target land becomes the basic land of your choice till end of turn)

Planeswalkers: 2

Liliana Vess (3c + 2b, 5 counters)

+1: Target player discards a card.
-2: Search your library for a card, then shuffle it and put that card on top.
-8: Put all creatures from all graveyards into play under your control.

Jace Beleren (1c+2u, 3 counters)

+2: Each player draws a card.
-1: Target player draws a card.
-10: Target player puts the top 20 cards of his library into his graveyard.

Artifacts and spells: 16

1 Coalition Relic (artifact, tap to add 1 mana of any color or to put a charge counter on Relic. At the beginning of your main phase, remove all charge counters from Relic and add one mana of any color for each counter removed. 3c)
2 Coat of Arms (artifact, each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature in play that shares at least one creature type. 5c)
1 Grimoire of the Dead (legendary artifact; 1c, ->, discard a card: put a study counter on Grimoire. ->, remove three counters, and sacrifice Grimoire: put all creatures from all graveyards into play under your control. They become black zombies in addition to their normal colors and types. 4c)
1 Kraken's Eye (artifact, whenever a player plays a blue spell, gain 1 life. 2c)
2 Pristine Talisman (artifact, ->: add 1c colorless to mana pool and gain 1 life. 3c)
1 Venser's Journal (artifact, you have no maximum hand size. At upkeep, gain 1 life for each card in your hand. 5c)

2 Hissing Miasma (black enchantment, whenever a creature attacks you, its controller loses 1 life. 1c+2b)
1 Liliana's Caress (black enchantment, whenever an opponent discards a card, they lose 2 life. 1c+1b)
1 Coastal Piracy (blue enchantment, whenever a creature you control damages an opponent, draw a card. 2c+2u)
2 Contaminated Bond (black aura, whenever enchanted creature attacks or blocks, its controller loses 3 life. 1c+1b)
1 Perplex (black & blue instant, counter target spell unless its controller discards his hand. Transmute 1c+1u+1b. 1c+1u+1b)
1 Life's Finale (black sorcery, destroy all creatures. Search target opponent's library for up to 3 creatures and put them into that player's graveyard. That player then shuffles his library. 4c+2b)

Creatures: 27

1 Psychosis Crawler (artifact creature, */*, * is equal to the number of cards in your hand. Whenever you draw a card, each opponent loses 1 life. 5c)
1 Sturmgeist (blue spirit, flying, */*, * is equal to the number of cards in your hand. Whenever Sturmgeist damages an opponent, draw a card. 3c+2u)
2 Wall of Frost (blue wall, defender, 0/7, whenever WoF blocks an attacker, that attacker doesn't untap during its controller's next untap phase. 1c+2u)
1 Dimir Infiltrator (black & blue spirit, unblockable, 1/3, transmute 1c+1u+1b. 1u+1b)
3 Lantern Spirit (blue spirit, flying, 2/1, 1u: return LS to its controller's hand. 2c+1u)
1 Loch Korrigan (black spirit, 1/1, 1u/b: LK gets +1/+1 till end of turn. 3c+1b)
1 Adaptive Automaton (artifact creature, 2/2, gains the extra creature type of your choice on entering play. All other creatures you control of that type get +1/+1. 3c)
1 Dimir Cutpurse (black & blue spirit, 2/2, whenever DC damages an opponent, they discard a card and you draw one. 1c+1u+1b)
2 Ghostly Changeling (black changeling, 2/2, 1c+1b: gets +1/+1 till end of turn. 2c+1b)
1 Lingering Tormentor (black spirit, 2/2, fear, persist. 3c+1b)
2 Moonglove Changeling (black changeling, 2/2, 1b: gets deathtouch till end of turn. 2c+1b)
3 Belltower Sphinx (blue sphinx, 2/5, flying; whenever Spinx takes damage from a source, that source's controller puts an equal number of cards into his graveyard from library. 4c+1u)
4 Moon Heron (blue spirit bird, 3/2, flying. 3c+1u)
1 Wind Spirit (blue spirit, 3/2, flying, must be blocked by at least two creatures. 4c+1u)
1 Teller of Tales (blue spirit, 3/3, flying; whenever you play a spirit or arcane spell, tap or untap target creature. 3c+2u)
2 Battleground Geist (blue spirit, 3/3, flying, other spirits you control get +1/+0. 4c+1u)

[RJDiogenes]

Some of those creature names are pretty cool.

I'm not sure I understand Planeswalkers, though. Are they like NPCs?

[Unicron]

No, they're characters which exist within the storyline. There've been a lot of famous planewalkers, but up until the mechanic was introduced they were not part of the game engine itself. That was back in the days when planeswalkers were more powerful than they are now.

[Unicron]

The new stuff should be out relatively soon. I've been interested to see what effect the double-sided cards will have on the future game. Some players think they're too gimmicky apparently, and others think they're a good addition. They do make sorting a little more difficult though.

[RJDiogenes]

Double-sided cards?

[Unicron]

Yep. They just added that in the last expansion, Innistrad. So far it's only applied to creatures, although the preview for the second part of block also showed a twin-sided artifact. I'm not sure yet how it will play out with non-creature cards. But imagine you have a werewolf or vampire, and it can change between its human form and its monstrous form. The change will be mechanically triggered by something like "If no spells were played this turn, transform this card." So you might be able to make the creature more powerful in its monster form, but it only stays that way so long as the transformation condition isn't met. This makes it somewhat easier to control transformations, and also should prevent such cards from becoming too powerful by limiting how long their powered up form lasts.

[RJDiogenes]

That actually sounds like a pretty cool idea to me.

[Unicron]

I'm still somewhat on the fence myself, since the concept is new, but personally I'm open-minded. It's seemed to me that WotC has thought about how to make the mechanics work with existing engine and to keep the cards reasonably balanced, so it will be interesting to see where it goes. Hopefully they'll be able to maintain a good mechanical balance and make it a fun addition to the game.

[Unicron]

Well, I think I might finally retire from the collecting aspect at the end of the block. I have way too many cards. I'm debating whether it's worth trying to get the Divine vs Demonic deck, which I probably should have bought when it was more easily available. It's one of a more limited set and was released back in '09, so it's ridiculously expensive. I'm really more interested in the white cards than the black ones.

Any donations of course would always be welcome...

[RJDiogenes]

There's no such thing as too many... anythings.

There is, however, such as thing as too little money.

[Unicron]

Yeah, I wish I could farm real money as easily as virtual money...

[Unicron]

It's on the way. Part of the reason for the high expense, in my opinion, is that the set includes about four powerful rares, and Akroma is probably the most sought after. She's a very popular legend because of her sheer power, and she runs about $30 by herself.

[RJDiogenes]

She's scary. Looks more like a Harpy than an Angel.

[Unicron]

You should see her red incarnation.

[RJDiogenes]

Heh. I'll bet these guys love Supernatural.